


cut to the feeling

by lotts (LottieAnna)



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Ghosts, Humor, M/M, Supernatural Elements, background taegyu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25418467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LottieAnna/pseuds/lotts
Summary: Yeonjun doesn’t know when his life got so goddamn weird— it seems like everyone he knows has something supernatural going on. One of these days he’s gonna wake up and be a werewolf, or something. Maybe he should check at the next full moon.(Wherein Huening Kai is a ghost, Soobin is smitten, and Yeonjun is tired of their bullshit.)
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Huening Kai
Comments: 13
Kudos: 63





	cut to the feeling

**Author's Note:**

> IF YOU FOUND THIS THROUGH GOOGLING, KNOW ANYONE MENTIONED IN THIS STORY PERSONALLY, OR ARE MENTIONED YOURSELF: please, please click away. This is a work of fiction and nothing written in this story is true. Any accurate information used in this story is publicly available information about public figures, the rest is a 100% made-up story that happens to borrow their names and faces.
> 
> thanks to crj for the title and thanks to dee for beta reading

“Yeonjun,” Soobin says. “There’s a problem.”

Yeonjun looks up from his magazine and raises an eyebrow at Soobin. “Yes?”

“It’s about Huening Kai,” Soobin says. 

This isn’t a surprise. Soobin comes up with new ways to whine about Huening Kai about once a week, which is honestly baffling to Yeonjun. Huening Kai is super chill, as far as ghosts go. He doesn’t even haunt Soobin, just watches TV with him, occasionally makes him play board games, or something. Considering Soobin never leaves his house, it’s good he gets along well with the ghost who lives there. Yeonjun just doesn’t really get why Soobin won’t stop talking about him. 

“What did he do this time?” Yeonjun asks, vaguely uninterested.

Soobin frowns. “Did you know he’s 17?”

“He’s dead,” Yeonjun says. “I don’t think you have an age when you’re dead.”

“But he died at 17. That means he’s basically a teenager.”

“You’re also a teenager.”

“I’m two years older than he is.”

“He died before you were born.”

“But he still acts like a teenager,” Soobin says. “Mentally, he’s a teenager.”

“Physically, he’s a ghost.”

“My point is that he’s so  _ young.” _

“So?” Yeonjun really doesn’t get what the issue is here.

“Like… is he  _ too _ young?”

Yeonjun raises an eyebrow. “Too young for what?”

“Just— nothing,” Soobin says, blushing. “This was stupid. Forget I said anything.”

“No, no,” Yeonjun says, considerably more interested. “I want to know what you want to do to him, that he’s potentially too young for.”

Soobin’s face goes from pink to scarlet. “I don’t want to do anything to him. He’s a ghost, and a  _ child— _ ”

“Two years younger.”

“Those are a big two years!” Soobin protests. “There’s a lot of life experiences that happen between 17 and 19.”

“He doesn’t have a life to experience,” Yeonjun says. This might be the funniest conversation he’s ever been a part of. “He’s been around for longer than any of us, anyway. If anything, you’re too young for him.”

“Why is this so confusing,” Soobin groans.

Yeonjun pats him on the knee. “Probably because you have feelings for a ghost.”

“I never said that.” 

He’s also not denying it, but Yeonjun is an exceptionally nice person, so he doesn’t point that out.

…… 

They decide that Soobin’s next move should be to ask Beomgyu for advice. It’s a sound move, because Beomgyu and Kai have a lot in common, and because Beomgyu is a witch, which means he tends to know a lot of spooky afterlife stuff. 

“If he says he’s 17, then he’s 17,” Beomgyu says. “Age is mostly a human thing, though. Ghosts don’t really care about that stuff.”

“But what does it mean when a ghost says he’s 17?” Soobin asks.

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask Huening Kai,” Beomgyu says. “Why aren’t you asking Huening Kai, by the way?”

“Because this whole thing is Soobin’s elaborate way of avoiding his feelings for him,” Yeonjun says, because he is a very helpful person.

Beomgyu perks up. “Oh, are we talking about that now?”

Yeonjun says “yes” at the same time Soobin says “no.”

“Wonderful,” Beomgyu says. “What does his age have to do with any of this?”

“I just want to know if he’s too young,” Soobin mutters.

“Isn’t the usual rule half your age plus seven? I’m sure that works for ghost ages too, if they even care at all,” Beomgyu says. “I can have Taehyun ask next time he talks to the dead.”

“Since when does Taehyun talk to the dead?” Yeonjun asks.

“He’s been working on it for a few months,” Beomgyu says, his voice more than a little proud. “He’s very good at it.”

Yeonjun doesn’t know when his life got so goddamn weird— it seems like everyone he knows has something supernatural going on. One of these days he’s gonna wake up and be a werewolf, or something. Maybe he should check at the next full moon.

“I think crowdsourcing the dead for relationship advice is an excellent idea,” Yeonjun says. “Say thanks, Soobin.”

“Why can’t anyone just answer my question,” Soobin complains.

“Because it’s a bad question,” Beomgyu says.

“And I doubt you want a real answer, anyway,” Yeonjun says. 

Soobin glares daggers at both of them, but it doesn’t really affect Yeonjun much.

……

“Huening Kai?” Yeonjun asks, entering Soobin’s apartment. “Are you around?” 

Huening Kai materializes in front of him, arms crossed. 

“Oh, good,” Yeonjun says. “Soobin says you’re haunting him.”

“I’m not  _ haunting  _ him, Jesus Christ. I slammed one door.”

“It scared him, apparently,” Yeonjun says.

Huening Kai frowns. “Serves him right.”

“What happened?” Yeonjun asks. “Did you guys fight, or something?”

Huening Kai’s frown deepens. “Not really,” he said. “But he’s— he asked someone on a date.”

“What?” Yeonjun says, not sure if he heard right. 

“I know!” Huening Kai says. “It literally makes no sense. Why does he need to date? He has me?”

“We’re not dating,” Soobin calls from the other room. Yeonjun is going to have to have a talk with him about Things To Not Say To The Ghost You’re Trying To Date later, because, really, that’s not a battle he should be picking right now.

“I will rearrange your sock drawer,” Huening Kai yells back. “You will never find a matching pair ever again.  _ Ever. _ ”

“Not to take Soobin’s side in all this, but I’m pretty sure a ghost taking petty revenge does count as haunting,” Yeonjun says.

“You’re a traitor,” Huening Kai says. 

“I’m on the side of reason,” Yeonjun says. It’s not where he belongs, and it’s making him feel kind of itchy, but here he is.

“Huening Kai is a liar,” Soobin calls. “I haven’t asked anyone on a date yet.”

“But you’re going to, and they’re obviously going to say yes—“

“You don’t know that—”

“Stop having this conversation in different rooms,” Yeonjun says, interrupting what’s building up to be a truly pointless back and forth. “Soobin, come in here.”

“He’s gonna haunt me more.” 

“That’s not how haunting works,” Yeonjun says. Then, to Huening Kai: “That’s not how haunting works, right?” 

Huening Kai shrugs. “I dunno.”

“Great, the ghost doesn’t know how to haunt,” Yeonjun says. Then, louder, “Soobin, if you don’t come out here, I’m helping Huening Kai rearrange your sock drawer.”

“Fine,” Soobin says, and after a second, he appears. Huening Kai glares at home, and Soobin glares back.

Awesome, great, Yeonjun is so very excited to be handling this situation. 

“Soobin,” Yeonjun says, “why were you talking to Huening Kai about dating other people?”

“It seemed relevant,” Soobin says. 

Yeonjun gives Soobin a look like,  _ were you trying to talk about potentially dating him without actually mentioning the fact that you want to date him?,  _ and Soobin gives him one back like,  _ okay, yeah, sorta, I know it was a bad idea that you’re gonna yell at me for later but please help me please.  _

Jesus fucking Christ.

“But are you actually dating anyone?” Yeonjun asks, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, but just barely.

“No,” Soobin says.

Yeonjun claps his hands. “Great, case closed.”

“But he’s going to ask someone out,” Huening Kai says. “And I don’t think that’s very fair of him.”

“I asked you so I could make sure you were okay with the idea of me dating,” Soobin says, glaring.

Huening Kai glares right back. “But the problem is that you wanted to in the first place.”

“Why is the idea of me asking someone out a problem?” Soobin asks.

Huening Kai gives Soobin a furious look, and he starts to sputter out an answer, but then his cheeks go a shade of red that borders on inhuman before he just straight-up vanishes.

“Jackass,” Soobin grumbles.

It’s Yeonjun’s turn to glare now. “Why would you do that?”

“What?”

“Pick a fight with him about dating,” Yeonjun says. “Seriously, what did you think would happen? Did you really picture that conversation ending well?” 

“I was just… I don’t know, testing the waters.”

“You were getting in your own way,” Yeonjun says. “Don’t do that. You’ll just make yourself and him miserable, and I’d really prefer it if that didn’t happen.”

…… 

Yeonjun goes over to Taehyun’s to complain, because Taehyun is a very good listener, and usually has some absolutely devastating comments of his own to offer. That man collects other people’s flaws the way some people collect stamps or rare coins, and he doesn’t dip into his store of insults until he knows they’re going to be most appreciated. Yeonjun is both terrified of and obsessed with him.

He opens Taehyun’s door, and finds him sitting on the couch cross legged, his forehead pressed against Beomgyu’s. 

“Uh,” Yeonjun says, “what’s up?”

Beomgyu startles, practically jumping away from Taehyun; Taehyun looks relatively unphased.

“Beomgyu was helping me talk to dead people,” Taehyun says. 

“Right. He told me about that,” Yeonjun says. What Beomgyu hadn’t mentioned was that he was using Taehyun talking to dead people as an excuse to do something about his weird crush, though Yeonjun supposes he probably should have seen that one coming. 

“We were just contacting some spirits,” Beomgyu says, his cheeks still a little flushed. 

“One of them knew Hyuka when he was alive.” Taehyun says. “Did you know that he was, like, 40 when he died?”

“What?”

“Yeah. He was an  _ accountant _ .”

“If he died as a 40-year-old accountant, then why is he… him?”

“I guess he didn’t want to spend eternity like that,” Taehyun says. 

Yeonjun accepts that, and the conversation moves on. 

Later, when Beomgyu is in the bathroom, Yeonjun quietly asks Taehyun if he’s aware that he’s being flirted with. 

Taehyun snorts. “I’m still waiting for him to realize it, but.” He shrugs. “It’s cool. It’s fun.” 

“If only it were that simple with Soobin and Hyuka,” Yeonjun says, sighing. 

Beomgyu walks back into the room. “What are we talking about?”

“Nothing,” Yeonjun says, standing up. “I’m going to go yell at a ghost. See you guys later.” 

“Tell him we say hi,” Taehyun says, giving him a cheerful wave on his way out.

…… 

“Huening Kai?” Yeonjun says, walking into the apartment.

“Soobin’s not here,” Huening Kai calls back.

“Good,” Yeonjun says. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Come into the living room, then,” Huening Kai says.

When Yeonjun turns the corner, he sees Huening Kai upside down on the couch, throwing a baseball up and down. Yeonjun’s not sure where the ball came from, because Soobin is more or less allergic to activity and Huening Kai is a ghost, but he has bigger things to worry about right now.

“Taehyun says you were a 40-year-old accountant when you died,” Yeonjun says, sitting down on the couch next to him.

The ball goes up, then down again. “Taehyun’s a narc.”

“He met an ex coworker of yours,” Yeonjun says. “Did you know he’s talking to dead people now?” 

“He talks to me, and I’m dead.” 

“I mean not-ghost dead people,” Yeonjun says. He doesn’t know which dead people become ghosts and which don’t, but he’s always assumed it’s a matter of personal preference. 

“Oh,” Huening Kai says. “Why would he do that?” 

“I think it’s got something to do with Beomgyu,” Yeonjun says. “Anyway.” 

Huening Kai raises his eyebrows. “What?” 

“I know that you’re not a 40-year-old accountant with us,” Yeonjun says. “You’re a 17-year-old ghost, and we all love that. Especially Soobin.” 

Huening Kai pouts. “Not especially you?” 

“You know that’s not what I mean.” If Huening Kai is good at using charm to derail a conversation, Yeonjun has a freaking doctorate in it. “Soobin  _ likes  _ you. And I think, somewhere underneath the dumbass 17-year-old ghost we know and love, there’s a teeny tiny part of you that’s still that practical adult you used to be, and that part of you knows you’re both being stupid about this.” 

“Stop using my dark past against me,” Huening Kai says, faking a throw at Yeonjun, who flinches. 

“Stop letting Soobin fuck up asking you out,” Yeonjun says. “You know that’s what he wants to do.” 

Huening Kai sits up abruptly, except, because he was upside down, it results in a lot of limbs flying everywhere, and Yeonjun nearly getting kicked in the face by an oversized ghost foot. “No, I didn’t  _ know  _ that.” 

“Your inner accountant did.”

“I don’t listen to my inner accountant,” Huening Kai says. “That guy is really boring.” 

“You know who else is boring?” Yeonjun says. “Soobin.” 

“No he’s not,” Huening Kai says, suddenly switching into some fiercely defensive mode Yeonjun didn’t even know he had. “He’s hilarious, and has great taste in movies, and even when we don’t talk for hours, just hanging out and messing around is more fun when he’s there.  _ Everything’s  _ more fun when he’s there. You can’t say he’s boring. He’s the  _ best.”  _

Yeonjun looks at Huening Kai, horrified. “Oh my  _ god _ . You’re, like, actually in love with him.” 

Huening Kai blushes furiously. “Shut up,” he says. “Just because we’re fighting right now, doesn’t mean he’s not still my friend.”

That’s absolutely not how friends talk about other friends, but okay. “So you’re not in love with him, then?”

“Shut  _ up.”  _

“You two are equally useless,” Yeonjun says. “I am begging one of you to figure this out, because I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” 

“It’s not like it’s a simple situation,” Huening Kai says. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m, like, kind of dead? And, like— what if he finds out I used to be boring? What if he doesn’t want to be with a ghost? What if he thinks I’m too old for him? Or too young?” 

“Those are great questions for you to ask Soobin,” Yeonjun says. He rolls his eyes. “No one said it would be easy, dude. Just that you should do it. Sometimes, things that are worthwhile take work.” Yeonjun is pretty sure that’s true, at least, but he doesn’t really do feelings. Even being this involved in someone else’s love life makes him feel like he’s gonna break out in hives. 

“Stop giving me sound advice, it’s weird,” Huening Kai says. “I don’t like you when you sound like my inner accountant.” 

“I bet Soobin would  _ love _ your inner accountant,” Yeonjun says, waggling his eyebrows, which gets Huening Kai to throw the baseball at him for real. 

Which, fair, he probably deserved that. 

…… 

A few days later, Yeonjun is looking up werewolves. 

Just because, like, the full moon is coming up, y’know? Beomgyu said that werewolves were real. Granted, he also said that Yeonjun wouldn’t become a werewolf on his own unless he got bitten, but still, Yeonjun is curious. Do werewolves actually have packs? How big are the packs? How do you join one? Does getting bitten hurt a lot, or a little, or what? Do they really shift with the full moon, or can they do it whenever they want? He has pressing questions here.

Unfortunately, his dedicated research is interrupted by a text from Soobin.

_ junie?  _

Yeonjun sighs, picks up his phone, and sends back,  _ what?  _

_ hyuka asked me out _ .

_ okay? _

_ what do i say?  _

Yeonjun is so, so tired of giving advice, but he really does love his friends, so he figures he can stand to bite the bullet and do it one last time. 

_ you say ‘yes, yes, a thousand times yes, i want to marry you and live the rest of my life with you and have your half ghost babies, and when i die i want to become a ghost so we can spend eternity bothering yeonjun with stupid questions.’  _ He assumes that’s roughly equivalent to what Soobin’s heart is telling him, but Yeonjun would rather die than unironically tell someone to follow their heart. Just thinking the phrase is making him a little nauseous. 

_ okay,  _ Soobin replies, and then, a few seconds later,  _ thank you.  _

_ no problem,  _ Yeonjun says, which is partially a lie, because it was a little bit of a problem, but in all honesty, he really didn’t mind that much.

**Author's Note:**

> my kpop twitter is @bubblegumsookai!


End file.
